MetaGPT Software Company

Deploy MetaGPT on Clore.ai — run a fully autonomous multi-agent AI software company on affordable GPU cloud servers to generate complete codebases, PRDs, architecture designs, and QA tests from a sing

Overview

MetaGPT is a multi-agent AI framework that simulates a software company — complete with a Product Manager, Architect, Engineer, and QA Engineer agents — all collaborating to turn a one-sentence idea into a fully functional software project. With 45K+ GitHub stars, MetaGPT is one of the most innovative approaches to AI-driven software development.

Unlike a single coding agent, MetaGPT mirrors real team workflows. When you give it a task like "Build a Snake game in Python", it:

1. Product Manager — Writes a Product Requirements Document (PRD)

2. Architect — Designs the system architecture and tech stack

3. Project Manager — Breaks down tasks and assigns them

4. Engineers — Write actual working code for each component

5. QA Engineer — Writes unit tests and validates the implementation

The result is a complete project directory with code, documentation, and tests — generated autonomously.

Key capabilities:

• Full software lifecycle — From requirements to working code in one command

• Role-based agents — Specialized agents with distinct responsibilities

• Document generation — Auto-produces PRDs, system designs, API specs

• Multi-language support — Python, Node.js, Go, and more

• Data interpreter — Autonomous data analysis and visualization agent

• Incremental development — Add features to existing projects

• Human interaction mode — Pause for human review at key stages

Why Clore.ai for MetaGPT?

MetaGPT itself is CPU-based, but Clore.ai offers critical advantages:

• Long-running tasks — MetaGPT generation can take 10–60 minutes; dedicated servers handle this without timeouts

• Local LLM backend — Use Ollama or vLLM to eliminate per-token API costs for large projects

• Cost control — At $0.20–0.35/hr, run extensive MetaGPT sessions cheaper than GPT-4o API calls

• Isolated environment — Generated code runs in a controlled server environment

• Team collaboration — Share a MetaGPT server endpoint across a development team

---

Requirements

MetaGPT orchestrates LLM API calls — the GPU is needed only if you run a local LLM backend.

Configuration	GPU	VRAM	RAM	Storage	Est. Price
MetaGPT + OpenAI/Anthropic API	None	—	4 GB	20 GB	~$0.03–0.08/hr
+ Ollama (Qwen2.5-Coder 7B)	RTX 3090	24 GB	16 GB	40 GB	~$0.20/hr
+ Ollama (DeepSeek Coder 33B)	RTX 4090	24 GB	32 GB	60 GB	~$0.35/hr
+ vLLM (Qwen2.5-Coder 32B)	RTX 4090	24 GB	32 GB	80 GB	~$0.35/hr
+ vLLM (Llama 3.1 70B)	A100 80GB	80 GB	64 GB	100 GB	~$1.10/hr

Recommendation: MetaGPT heavily relies on model quality for coherent multi-step reasoning. For complex projects, use GPT-4o or Claude Sonnet 3.5 APIs, or locally Qwen2.5-Coder-32B / DeepSeek-Coder-V2. See the GPU Comparison Guide.

Software requirements on the Clore.ai server:

• Docker Engine (pre-installed on all Clore.ai images)

• NVIDIA Container Toolkit (only for local LLM option)

• 20+ GB free disk space (MetaGPT image + generated project files)

• Outbound internet access (for pulling Docker images and reaching LLM APIs)

---

Quick Start

Step 1: Connect to Your Clore.ai Server

Book a server on Clore.ai marketplace:

• For API-only: Any server with ≥4 GB RAM

• For local LLM: GPU with ≥24 GB VRAM

ssh root@<server-ip> -p <ssh-port>

Step 2: Pull the MetaGPT Docker Image

docker pull metagpt/metagpt:latest

The MetaGPT image is ~3 GB. This may take 2–5 minutes on first pull.

Step 3: Set Up Configuration

MetaGPT requires a YAML configuration file with your LLM API credentials:

# Create directories
mkdir -p /opt/metagpt/{config,workspace}

# Extract the default config template from the image
docker run --rm metagpt/metagpt:latest \
  cat /app/metagpt/config/config2.yaml \
  > /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml

# View the config
cat /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml

Step 4: Configure Your LLM Provider

Edit the configuration file:

nano /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml

For OpenAI (GPT-4o):

llm:
  api_type: "openai"
  model: "gpt-4o"
  base_url: "https://api.openai.com/v1"
  api_key: "sk-your-openai-key-here"

repair_llm_output: true
max_auto_summarize_code: 1

For Anthropic (Claude):

llm:
  api_type: "anthropic"
  model: "claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022"
  api_key: "sk-ant-your-key-here"

repair_llm_output: true

For local Ollama (see GPU section):

llm:
  api_type: "ollama"
  model: "ollama/qwen2.5-coder:32b"
  base_url: "http://host.docker.internal:11434"
  api_key: "ollama"

repair_llm_output: true

Step 5: Run Your First MetaGPT Project

# Generate a Snake game (classic demo)
docker run --rm --privileged \
  -v /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml:/app/metagpt/config/config2.yaml \
  -v /opt/metagpt/workspace:/app/metagpt/workspace \
  metagpt/metagpt:latest \
  metagpt "Create a snake game with Python"

Watch the agents work: you'll see PRD generation, system design, code writing, and testing in sequence. Expect 5–15 minutes depending on your LLM.

Step 6: View the Output

ls -la /opt/metagpt/workspace/
# You'll see a directory named after your project

find /opt/metagpt/workspace -type f | head -30
# Lists all generated files: .py, .md, requirements.txt, tests/

---

Configuration

Full Configuration Reference

# /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml

# Primary LLM configuration
llm:
  api_type: "openai"          # openai | anthropic | ollama | azure | gemini
  model: "gpt-4o"
  base_url: "https://api.openai.com/v1"
  api_key: "your-api-key"
  temperature: 0.0            # Lower = more deterministic code generation
  max_token: 4096

# MetaGPT behavior settings
repair_llm_output: true       # Auto-fix malformed LLM responses
max_auto_summarize_code: 1    # Code summary iterations (0 = disabled)
max_project_auto_run: 5       # Max auto-execution cycles

# Project settings
project_name: ""              # Optional: override generated project name
inc: false                    # Incremental mode (add to existing project)
reqa_file: ""                 # Run QA on a specific file

# Cost tracking
max_budget: 10.0              # Max $ to spend (API calls only)

Running in Interactive Mode

For more control, run MetaGPT with human review checkpoints:

docker run --rm -it --privileged \
  -v /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml:/app/metagpt/config/config2.yaml \
  -v /opt/metagpt/workspace:/app/metagpt/workspace \
  metagpt/metagpt:latest \
  metagpt "Build a REST API for a todo list app with FastAPI" \
  --human-review

With --human-review, MetaGPT pauses after the PRD and system design stages, allowing you to provide feedback before engineering begins.

Incremental Development (Add to Existing Project)

# Continue development on an existing project
docker run --rm -it --privileged \
  -v /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml:/app/metagpt/config/config2.yaml \
  -v /opt/metagpt/workspace:/app/metagpt/workspace \
  -v /opt/metagpt/workspace/my-project:/app/metagpt/workspace/my-project \
  metagpt/metagpt:latest \
  metagpt "Add user authentication to the existing todo API" \
  --project-path /app/metagpt/workspace/my-project \
  --inc

Running the Data Interpreter

MetaGPT includes a specialized Data Interpreter agent for data analysis:

# Interactive Python data analysis
docker run --rm -it --privileged \
  -v /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml:/app/metagpt/config/config2.yaml \
  -v /opt/metagpt/workspace:/app/metagpt/workspace \
  -v /path/to/your/data:/data:ro \
  metagpt/metagpt:latest \
  python -m metagpt.roles.di.data_interpreter \
    "Analyze /data/sales.csv and find top-performing products, create visualization"

Docker Compose for Persistent Setup

# /opt/metagpt/docker-compose.yml
version: "3.9"

services:
  metagpt:
    image: metagpt/metagpt:latest
    privileged: true
    volumes:
      - /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml:/app/metagpt/config/config2.yaml:ro
      - /opt/metagpt/workspace:/app/metagpt/workspace
      - /opt/metagpt/logs:/app/metagpt/logs
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
    stdin_open: true
    tty: true
    # Note: MetaGPT is task-based, not a persistent service.
    # Use 'docker compose run metagpt metagpt "your task"' to execute
    entrypoint: ["bash"]

# Run a task via docker-compose
docker compose -f /opt/metagpt/docker-compose.yml \
  run --rm metagpt \
  metagpt "Create a Flask web app with user registration"

---

GPU Acceleration (Local LLM Integration)

MetaGPT + Ollama

Run MetaGPT completely free (no API costs) using a local coding model:

# Step 1: Start Ollama with GPU
docker run -d \
  --name ollama \
  --gpus all \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 11434:11434 \
  -v ollama-models:/root/.ollama \
  ollama/ollama:latest

# Step 2: Pull a high-quality coding model
# For RTX 3090/4090 (24 GB VRAM):
docker exec ollama ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:32b      # Best for code
docker exec ollama ollama pull deepseek-coder-v2:16b  # Alternative
# For smaller GPUs (8–16 GB VRAM):
docker exec ollama ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:7b
docker exec ollama ollama pull codellama:13b

# Step 3: Configure MetaGPT for Ollama
cat > /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml << 'EOF'
llm:
  api_type: "ollama"
  model: "ollama/qwen2.5-coder:32b"
  base_url: "http://host.docker.internal:11434"
  api_key: "ollama"
  temperature: 0.0
  max_token: 4096

repair_llm_output: true
max_auto_summarize_code: 0
EOF

# Step 4: Run MetaGPT with host network for Ollama access
docker run --rm --privileged \
  --add-host host.docker.internal:host-gateway \
  -v /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml:/app/metagpt/config/config2.yaml \
  -v /opt/metagpt/workspace:/app/metagpt/workspace \
  metagpt/metagpt:latest \
  metagpt "Create a Python CLI tool for file organization"

See the complete Ollama guide for model setup and GPU optimization.

MetaGPT + vLLM (High Throughput)

For maximum token throughput on large, complex projects:

# Step 1: Start vLLM with a coding model
docker run -d \
  --name vllm \
  --gpus all \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  --ipc=host \
  vllm/vllm-openai:latest \
  --model Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct \
  --max-model-len 32768 \
  --gpu-memory-utilization 0.90

# Wait for model load
until curl -s http://localhost:8000/health | grep -q ok; do
  echo "Waiting for vLLM..."; sleep 10
done

# Step 2: Configure MetaGPT for vLLM
cat > /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml << 'EOF'
llm:
  api_type: "openai"
  model: "Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct"
  base_url: "http://host.docker.internal:8000/v1"
  api_key: "none"
  temperature: 0.0
  max_token: 8192

repair_llm_output: true
EOF

# Step 3: Run MetaGPT
docker run --rm --privileged \
  --add-host host.docker.internal:host-gateway \
  -v /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml:/app/metagpt/config/config2.yaml \
  -v /opt/metagpt/workspace:/app/metagpt/workspace \
  metagpt/metagpt:latest \
  metagpt "Build a complete e-commerce backend with FastAPI and PostgreSQL"

See the vLLM guide for quantization options and multi-GPU setups.

Recommended Models by Task

Task Type	Model	Min VRAM	Notes
Simple scripts	qwen2.5-coder:7b	8 GB	Fast, good for CLI tools
Medium projects	qwen2.5-coder:14b	12 GB	Good balance
Complex systems	qwen2.5-coder:32b	24 GB	Best local option
Large codebases	gpt-4o / claude-3-5-sonnet	API	Most reliable for complex PRDs

Tip: Local models work well for code generation but sometimes struggle with complex architectural reasoning. For production-quality PRDs and system designs, consider using GPT-4o or Claude for the planning phase and a local model for code generation.

---

Tips & Best Practices

1. Write Effective Task Prompts

MetaGPT performance heavily depends on your initial prompt quality:

✅ Good prompts:
"Create a Python REST API using FastAPI that manages a library catalog.
Features: add/search/delete books, user authentication with JWT, 
SQLite database, OpenAPI docs. Target: production-ready with tests."

"Build a CLI data pipeline tool in Python that reads CSV files,
performs statistical analysis, and outputs charts using matplotlib."

❌ Vague prompts:
"Make a web app"
"Build something with Python"

2. Estimate API Costs Before Running

# MetaGPT processes many tokens per project:
# - Simple script: ~50K tokens (~$0.25 with GPT-4o)
# - Medium webapp: ~200K tokens (~$1.00 with GPT-4o)
# - Complex system: ~500K+ tokens (~$2.50+ with GPT-4o)

# Set a budget limit in config:
# max_budget: 2.0  # Stop after $2 spent

3. Review Generated PRD First

Use --human-review for important projects. The PRD stage is where requirements are locked in — catching issues here saves significant token cost compared to revising after code generation.

4. Test Generated Code

MetaGPT generates unit tests, but always verify:

# Navigate to generated project
cd /opt/metagpt/workspace/<your-project>

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run the generated tests
pytest tests/ -v

# Try running the main application
python main.py

5. Use Version Control

# Initialize git in the workspace
cd /opt/metagpt/workspace
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial MetaGPT generation"

# After each iteration
git add .
git commit -m "MetaGPT: Added authentication feature"

6. Batch Multiple Projects

Run several projects overnight on Clore.ai for maximum value:

#!/bin/bash
# /opt/metagpt/batch-run.sh
PROJECTS=(
  "Create a URL shortener service with Python and Redis"
  "Build a Markdown to PDF converter CLI tool"
  "Create a REST API for a blog with comments and tags"
)

for project in "${PROJECTS[@]}"; do
  echo "Starting: $project"
  docker run --rm --privileged \
    -v /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml:/app/metagpt/config/config2.yaml \
    -v /opt/metagpt/workspace:/app/metagpt/workspace \
    metagpt/metagpt:latest \
    metagpt "$project"
  echo "Completed: $project"
done

---

Troubleshooting

Image Pull Fails

# If Docker Hub rate limit is hit
docker login  # Log in with your Docker Hub account
docker pull metagpt/metagpt:latest

# Check available disk space
df -h
# MetaGPT image is ~3 GB; workspace can grow to several GB

Config File Not Found

# Verify the path mapping is correct
docker run --rm \
  -v /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml:/app/metagpt/config/config2.yaml \
  metagpt/metagpt:latest \
  ls -la /app/metagpt/config/

# Also verify your YAML is valid
python3 -c "import yaml; yaml.safe_load(open('/opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml'))"

LLM API Authentication Error

# Test your API key independently
curl https://api.openai.com/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-your-key"

# For Anthropic:
curl https://api.anthropic.com/v1/models \
  -H "x-api-key: sk-ant-your-key" \
  -H "anthropic-version: 2023-06-01"

# Common issues:
# - Key copied with extra whitespace
# - Key expired or quota exceeded
# - Wrong api_type in config (e.g., "openai" vs "anthropic")

Ollama Connection Refused from Container

# Verify Ollama is running
docker ps | grep ollama
curl http://localhost:11434/api/tags

# Test from MetaGPT container perspective
docker run --rm \
  --add-host host.docker.internal:host-gateway \
  metagpt/metagpt:latest \
  curl http://host.docker.internal:11434/api/tags

# If still failing, check Ollama logs
docker logs ollama --tail 20

Generation Hangs or Times Out

# Check if the LLM is actually responding
# Add debug logging to see which agent is stuck
docker run --rm --privileged \
  -e PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
  -v /opt/metagpt/config/config2.yaml:/app/metagpt/config/config2.yaml \
  -v /opt/metagpt/workspace:/app/metagpt/workspace \
  metagpt/metagpt:latest \
  metagpt "Simple task" 2>&1 | tee /opt/metagpt/logs/debug.log

# Common causes:
# - Local model too slow (try smaller quantized model)
# - API rate limiting (add delays or switch tier)
# - Model context window exceeded (reduce max_auto_summarize_code)

Out of Disk Space

# Generated projects can be large; clean up old ones
du -sh /opt/metagpt/workspace/*
rm -rf /opt/metagpt/workspace/old-project/

# Also clean Docker build cache
docker system prune -f

# Check total usage
df -h /opt/metagpt/

"Repair LLM Output" Loops

# If MetaGPT keeps retrying due to malformed LLM output:
# 1. Try a more capable model (GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet)
# 2. Reduce temperature (set to 0.0 for determinism)
# 3. Disable repair (if using a capable model):
#    repair_llm_output: false

---

Further Reading

• MetaGPT GitHub Repository — Source code, examples, roadmap

• MetaGPT Documentation — Official docs, configuration reference, tutorials

• MetaGPT Discord — Community support, use cases, model tips

• Docker Hub: metagpt/metagpt — Available image tags

• Ollama on Clore.ai — Run local LLMs to power MetaGPT for free

• vLLM on Clore.ai — High-throughput local LLM for MetaGPT at scale

• GPU Comparison Guide — Choose the right Clore.ai GPU for your workload

• SWE-bench Leaderboard — Benchmark multi-agent coding frameworks

• MetaGPT Paper — Original research: "MetaGPT: Meta Programming for a Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework"